


Red Patent

by highseize



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-06
Updated: 2013-08-06
Packaged: 2017-12-22 14:34:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/914331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highseize/pseuds/highseize
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been months since the ocean closed up. Nothing will take this from her now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Patent

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for Pacific Rim spoilers and mentions of canonical character death.
> 
> I just wanted to write more about Mako, I don't write enough of Mako. Hermann and Newt are basically adorable uncles.

In the aftermath of the Breach closure, everyone had stayed at the Shatterdome until they were slowly cleared out by higher command. It had been an unpleasant experience, the atmosphere heavy with grief and stillness in the absence of purpose. They were finished, and as good of a change as it had been, it had left a sort of aimless feeling in its wake. Mako spent the last of that time on base deciding what to replace it with. She was finally cut loose and able to be young and explore wherever and whatever she wanted. So she decided to do just that, on her own.   
  
She traveled to all the places her fallen comrades had been from, staying near most of them for a while to see what all those different parts of the world were like. She visited the Wei triplets' home before she left Hong Kong, a neighborhood that could be called slummy but had a lot of character. The neighbors had welcomed her and talked about their history when she said that she had known the triplets. She accompanied Herc on his flight back to Sydney. He showed her the opera house that was mercifully intact and the area Chuck had grown up in, even though the house was no longer there. Mako had walked around Vladivostok while her bones shook under the thick, cold air.  
  
Raleigh was waiting for her in Alaska, and once she met him there they were going to go together to places that neither of them had been before. She was grateful for his patience and understanding. She needed to be alone, and in all likelihood it was doing him some good as well. So she took her time absorbing the history that surrounded the people she had spent the most significant period of her life with.   
  
She called ahead to Doctors Geiszler and Gottlieb to alert them that she would be in Germany. The two fought for the phone to speak to her, bickering excitedly about whether or not their flat was fit to receive her esteemed presence. She was glad that for once she was going somewhere that she would be welcomed by people she knew, not just their memories.  
  
So she walks confidently down a street now, even though she isn't familiar with it, or even the country it is in. After having been at the helm of a Jaeger, nothing really bristles her, least of all other humans on a quiet street. It is overcast and cool outside as she strolls comfortably towards her destination. As she turns on to their street, she imagines the polar opposite and yet perfectly paired scientists as they must be getting ready for her.  
  
A moment after she knocks, the door flies open to reveal manic eyes staring at her from behind thick rimmed glasses. Newt pulls her into a constricting hug, shouting, “Mako! It's good to see you. How are you? You look good,” Newton rambles, gesturing her to a worn but comfortable looking chair in a cozy living area. “Hermann's just been fussing about your arrival all morning-”  
  
“Not any more than you, Newton. We both know you've scrubbed every surface an inordinate number of times today,” Hermann's voice interrupts as he steps in from the flat's small kitchen. He greets Mako with a much gentler hug than his partner did. He steps away and smiles at her, standing next to Newt. “It's a pleasure to have you come around to ours, Miss Mori.”  
  
She graciously accepts when they offer her coffee. There is a slight tussle over the ordeal because,  _Newton, really, we should use the good china when we have a guest,_  but  _Hermann, please, Mako is family and it's wrong to drink coffee from fine china._  
  
In the middle of their disagreement, Hermann gets an uncomfortable cramp in his leg, and Newt becomes an avalanche of affection.  
  
“Please, sit with Mako, I'll make the coffee. I'll even use the china, but don't exert yourself,” he says as Hermann makes his way calmly to the sofa that faces Mako's perch in the chair.  
  
“Oh, calm yourself. And use the bloody mugs, they're easier to clean anyways,” Hermann huffs but he smiles after Newt.  
  
Newt joins them moments later with three steaming mugs. He sets them on the coffee table and sits next to Hermann, gently rubbing the outside of his thigh soothingly. Mako can't help but smile at the two men she has known most of her life, happy next to each other. They ask her to recount her journey and she obliges, inquiring about their life at the end. Hermann lectures at a University now, and Newt is in the research division. Mako feels at home again whenever they exchange fond smiles after a playful verbal jab. They don't argue anymore, but they still like to poke fun, like they have since she was a kid wandering into their lab curiously.  
  
“So,” Newt says when they are back on the course of conversation, “Will you be here long? Before you head off to...?”  
  
Mako smiles, “Only a few days. I'll be in London next.” The two scientists' faces fall just noticeably and she reassures them, “It's okay. I'm excited, really, to see where Sensei was from. I think he would want me to go. He never had time to take me himself.”  
  
They smile again, although warily, and Newt clears the coffee table while Hermann shows Mako to the room she will be staying in.  
  
“You'll have to excuse the clutter,” He says leading her down a narrow hallway, “Newton has been keeping boxes of research notes in here. But it's a bed, and I dusted yesterday so it's not looking too bad. Go ahead and get settled in before we go out for dinner.”   
  
Mako thanks him as she sets her bag on a dark wooden side table.  
  
Later, they go to a cozy place with an impressive wine list, off of which Hermann orders something very expensive, waving a hand dismissively when Mako says it's not necessary. They spend dinner talking about her childhood, how proud they are to have been the math and science tutors to a savior of humanity. She laughs shyly and reminds them that they had some part in it, too. After quite a bit of wine, warm food, and good company, they return to the apartment where Mako affectionately wishes the two goodnight and retires to bed in her temporary home.  
  
  


*

  
  
As with most days after the Breach, Mako sleeps in and takes her time stretching awake in the morning. Light falls on her face and warms her skin, reminding her that she is in a safe and happy place. She emerges rested and walks to the living room.   
  
Newt is closing his laptop and standing, gathering belongings hurriedly when he greets her, “Morning! Sleep well?”  
  
“Yes, thank you.”  
  
“Good,” He smiles at her while he shoves papers and his computer into a bag, “Hermann's already at his morning lecture and I'm about to head out. There's tea and breakfast in the kitchen. Oh,” He reaches into his pocket just before rushing to work, handing her a spare key, “So that you're not stuck here until we get home. Anything else?”  
  
She shakes her head. “Thank you Newton. Have a good day.”  
  
He waves frantically behind his head as he scrambles out the door. Mako finds eggs and toast in the next room that she helps herself to before she readies herself to go out for a while.  
  
While her two hosts are at work, she explores. She spends the day admiring the old buildings, of which there are few in the cities she's been to, all of them along the Pacific Coast where they had been destroyed and rebuilt over the years of Kaiju attacks. She revels in seeing pedestrians moving about their day, no worries about the fate of the world to interrupt them. She stops several times just to observe for a while.  
  
She treats herself, too, strolling lazily and wandering into shops as she pleases. She buys pastries at a bakery, eating one and saving the rest to bring home and share with Newton, knowing he has a weakness for them. She's gazing into shop windows at all manner of extravagant clothing when she sees something special.   
  
She has to stop in her tracks and stare at the pair of high heeled red patent leather shoes. They shine under the warm lighting of the shop, reminding her of Sasha Kaidanovsky's glamorous lipstick, and at the same time of the shoes she wore when Stacker Pentecost defeated Onibaba, saving her life. The feeling they illicit in Mako is beyond her words; an instant, gnawing affection that almost seems masochistic. A desire that is painful and suffocating, but that she doesn't feel like ignoring.  
  
Mako has never wanted something material so badly. She feels silly, like a girl staring at a puppy through a pet store window for the first time, crying when her parents drag her away only to forget about it when they take her to get ice cream afterward. She tries to move on but hesitates at the storefront. Conflicted, she decides there is no harm in looking.  
  
A bell tied to the door handle jingles when she pushes it open, stepping into the shop. It's chilly inside and her footsteps echo on the wood floor. As she approaches the pair of shoes the want only grows stronger. She thinks,  _I deserve this, I deserve this._  
  
“Would you like to try them on?” Mako glances at the shop girl, who addresses her in English, assuming that she is more likely to speak that than German.  
  
Mako stares back at the shoes. They are almost painful to look at, firstly because she wants them so desperately, but also because they do, without question, remind her of that day. Maybe, she thinks, that's part of why she likes them. Perhaps they remind her of her Sensei, in a way that hurts but feels right at the same time. Remembering is important to her.  
  
It's been months since the ocean closed up. Nothing will take this-shoes, or her memories-from her now. This is all for her. She deserves something nice and even a little bit unnecessary. Mako looks the girl in the eyes and nods. She smiles back and steps behind the glass wall between them and the shop display, picking up the shoes with care.  
  
Sliding her feet into them, Mako can hardly believe it. They fit perfectly. She's never worn heels so it takes a moment for her to understand the physics of walking in them, and she can tell that practice is in order.   
  
The girl speaks to her again, “Very pretty. Red is a good color for you,”   
  
Mako is reminded once more of Sasha, who had smiled at Mako as she walked by after dying her hair blue the first time, saying,  _'I knew you needed more color in your life, beautiful girl like you.'_  Mako starts to walk carefully towards a full length mirror. She admires the shape of her legs and how her hips sway boldly with her movement. She feels like she's taking her life back from the Kaiju, or rather both of them; life before her family died as well as what was left after. She buys the shoes without a moment's hesitation.  
  
The want subsides, satisfaction and determination settling in its place, as Mako watches the shop girl wrap her purchase in tissue paper and place the footwear in a box. She will rush back to Newt and Hermann's flat and spend the rest of the evening learning how to walk in heels. She can't wait to wear them all over London.


End file.
